Targeted
by CSI.Gabigail
Summary: During a gruesome murder investigation, Mac and Lindsay find themselves pulled in deeper than they realised. MeLty.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: During a gruesome murder investigation, Mac and Lindsay find themselves pulled in deeper than they realised.**

**Pairing: MeLty (Mac & Lindsay)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! & I am earning no money from this fic.**

**A/N's: This is my submission for my AS level Reading piece for English Language & Literature. So I need serious critique to make it as good as it can be... and since you lot are my target audience my teacher thought it would be a good idea to get your opinions.**

* * *

Vivian Snyder stood back and admired her work from the shadows, smiling as she took in the beautiful scene before her, the scene that had taken her over an hour to perfect. The exhilaration from the past 3 hours was still pumping adrenaline through her body. The sight of light leaving his eyes, the final shudder of the man who had ruined her life all those years ago. Watching Dan Palmer, the legendary, ruthless businessman die at her hands, had left her on such a high that she believed nobody could bring her back down.

* * *

#Flash#

Lindsay lowered her camera from the gruesome scene before her and glanced over at Mac, who was deep in thought. Sensing that he needed his space she returned to photographing the crime scene. In the 7 years that she had been a CSI, there were very few crime scenes that had been as horrific as this one. Blood spatter was like paint on the walls, all of the furniture in the room was either broken or tipped over and the body; the body was like nothing she had ever seen. There wasn't an inch on the man's body that wasn't cut, burned or mutilated in some way. Even after 7 years of processing crime scenes she was having trouble keeping her breakfast down.

It wasn't until she noticed that Mac was giving her a calculating look from across the room that she realised that her breathing had become quite laboured.

"You okay?" Mac asked her, eyes full of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine… Really!" she added when he gave her a sceptical look. She gave him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry about me."

Seemingly content with her answer, Mac turned away to continue processing the scene. Lindsay breathed an inward sigh of relief and returned to her work, conscious that every now and then Mac would lift his head up and look at her as if he were studying her.

When she felt his eyes on her once more she turned to face him to tell him to stop worrying about her, but he was intently staring at the wall, studying the blood on it. Shaking off the feeling that she was being watched, she walked up beside him to see what had Mac Taylor in such confusion. As she drew level with him he turned to face her, "Look at the wall and tell me what you see"

Puzzled, Lindsay did as she was told, blinking in surprise at what she saw. "This spatter is from a paint brush, real blood doesn't spray like that. It's too fine."

"Right," said Mac's voice from beside her, "So now the question becomes, why would someone paint the walls with blood?"

"Maybe the killer wanted to make a statement. The door was open, Mac, I think the killer wanted us to find this body. The media loves bloody crime scenes, what if they wanted people to know about this?"

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem," came Sheldon Hawkes' voice from across the room beside the body, "This is Danny Palmer. The media's gonna be all over this case"

"Dan Palmer?" Mac and Lindsay said together.

"But he's high profile," Lindsay said, looking back and forth between Mac and Hawkes, "He's under protection 24 hours a day, who would be crazy enough to try and kill him?"

Their answer, unbeknownst to them was hiding in an apartment across the street, watching their every move. She had just come by to check whether the cops had found the body yet, but just as she was about to turn to leave, she saw Mac Taylor walk up to the doors, rendering her incapable of movement. She had found him, after a year of searching she had found him! She had almost run after him, but then common sense kicked in. She couldn't go in there; it was an active crime scene, her crime scene. And Mac knew that she had a connection to Palmer; if she turned up she would be a suspect and if she were caught she would go back to jail again.

'No,' She thought to herself, 'I can't risk it.'

Her compromise had been to find an apartment that overlooked the crime scene, break in and wait for Mac to leave. She couldn't let him out of her sight now; if she did she could lose him forever.

* * *

Several hours and 60 bags of evidence later, Mac and Lindsay stood in the middle of the room, checking to see that they didn't miss anything. Once they were satisfied, they gathered the evidence bags and left the room to head back to the crime lab.

Half way through pilling the evidence bags into the back of Mac's truck, Lindsay glanced around, still under the impression that someone was watching her. Once again she shook it off and forced her mind back to the case.

She hopped into the passenger seat while Mac closed the trunk and made his way around to the driver's seat. When both of them were buckled up, Mac pulled out into the busy Manhattan traffic, completely unaware of the silver Chevrolet that pulled out of the next street.

* * *

Back at the Crime Lab parking lot, Mac and Lindsay were met by Hawkes who helped them with the vast amount of evidence that they were attempting to carry between them.

As they walked up to the doors of the Crime Lab Lindsay's stomach rumbled loudly.

"Hungry?" Mac said with a playful smile.

She blushed and ducked her head, "Shut up." And though she tried to seem mad at him she couldn't help the small smile that had appeared on her face.

"Ouch," Mac feigned offence, although he, like Lindsay, was also grinning. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to take a break and have lunch with me, but as your boss I could quite as easily tell you to get to work instead" he teased.

"Awww, I'm sorry," Lindsay said with a pout, which morphed into a smile, "I would love to go to lunch with you."

"Who said the offer was still standing?" He replied with a sly smile directed at her as he ducked out of the way of Lindsay's hand that she had attempted to playfully swat him with.

* * *

Vivian sat seething in her car; she had followed Mac back from the crime scene and was walking up to Mac as he was entering the building. She stopped dead when she heard him ask that woman out to lunch. He'd forgotten about her. When she'd felt the tears of anger form in her eyes she had hurried back to her car and sat in silence, blinking the tears away.

After regaining her composure her anger returned with a vengeance and she vowed that she would get Mac Taylor back if it were the last thing she did; whatever it took, she would do it.

* * *

After Mac, Lindsay and Hawkes had dropped the evidence off to their respective departments, Mac and Lindsay headed back out of the building and walked to the diner a few blocks away, the conversation switching between the case and their plans for the weekend.

As Lindsay sat opposite Mac in a booth of the CSI's favourite diner she allowed her mind to relax and she felt more peaceful than she had in weeks, although that may have been to do with finally getting a good night's sleep after working several double shifts in a row more than due to Mac's company. But she was glad for his company all the same.

After an hour of laughing, flirting and talking of fond memories, Mac, being the responsible man that he is, suggested that they head back to work.

On the short walk back to the crime lab, Lindsay noticed Mac looking nervous and just as she was about to question him, he tentatively reached out and slide his hand into hers. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand softly to reassure him; his edgy demeanour instantly subsided and he returned the squeeze.

They walked in a comfortable silence and Lindsay tried to comprehend what was happening, she was holding hands with her boss. She silently scolded herself for becoming involved with a co-worker again, the last time she had dated in the office was Danny Messer, and she regarded that as one of the biggest mistakes she had ever made.

After Danny had cheated on her she had subconsciously put up a figurative wall of defence and try as she might, she couldn't break it down. But recently, since she had gotten closer to Mac, the wall just seemed to crumble, without her doing a thing.

The moment they walked through the doors of the crime lab, Hawkes spotted them and hurried over to them.

"Hey Mac, Linds, we got a match to one of the gravitational blood drops, and it doesn't match the vic."

"Who is it?" Mac asked as they walked towards the layout room.

Hawkes showed them a portable screen containing the details, "Her name is Vivian Snyder, she was convicted back in 1982 for killing her landlord, and she pleaded self defence but a security tape proved otherwise. She was released just over a year ago when she completed her 25 year sentence."

Lindsay turned to say something to Mac but the words died somewhere on the way to her mouth when she saw Mac standing several feet behind her.

"I can't be on this case." Mac said abruptly.

"What? Why? What's wrong?" Lindsay said, concern evident in her eyes.

"I- I knew Vivian," Mac stuttered, "She was my girlfriend before she went to jail."

Just as Lindsay was about to reply, Stella rounded the corner, "Oh, Lindsay, there's a letter for you down in reception, a tall woman with dark hair dropped it off. She didn't leave a name."

Puzzled, Lindsay headed down to reception to claim the note, telling Mac to wait for her so they could talk things out.

She returned 10 minutes later, clutching the letter, and looking at it fearfully. Silently she handed it to Mac, who, upon reading it, looked up at Lindsay then dropped the letter and hurried of to reception with a picture of Vivian Snyder in his hands.

Hawkes, puzzled at the strange behaviour of his co-workers, picked up the piece of paper and read,

_Stay away from Mac Taylor,  
__Or I will do to you what I did to Dan Palmer._

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:**** Anything you recognize, I don't own. sigh**

**A/N's:****  
•**** Wow! The response I got to the first chapter was absolutely incredible! I was actually speechless at the massive amount of people who expressed an interest! 460 hits (and still climbing), 18 reviews, 14 alerts & 3 favorite stories… All from a single chapter! Thank you so much! You have no idea how much it means to me. I even managed to interest some non-MeLty fans.  
****• ****For those of you that are interested, I got the highest mark in my year for my coursework. (For those of you who don't know, I submitted the previous chapter as my English coursework at college.) And my teachers keep asking me if they can read the rest of the story.  
****• Also, thank you to those who reviewed so quickly after the last chapter was posted; it really helped me in my commentary… So you may have even boosted my grade a bit. So thank you. :)  
• I apologize for the massive delay! I know I said it should be out by early July, but then I had to go back and start my next year of college and work got in the way. And although I finished college 2 weeks ago, someone suddenly decided to give me a social life, so I was too busy to write. I'll try and get chapters out faster now, promise. :)  
• Thank you to Idina Malfoy for Beta'ing, and to Katlynn888 for helping me with the future plot and with the new title.  
• Finally, I'd like to point out that since I'm obsessive over detail, if I invent a place that I'm going to spend a lot of time writing about I have to have a picture of it in my head. So I spent ages drawing out a plan for Mac's apartment and then constructed a copy of it in The Sims 2. And I must say, I'm quite proud of it, so if you'd like to check out the pictures the URL will be posted on my profile.**

**Now, enough of my babbling; Enjoy. :)  
**

* * *

"Stay away from Mac Taylor?" Hawkes thought aloud, "What does that mean?"

Lindsay brushed him off and walked out of the Layout room to find Mac.

As she walked through the halls of CSI she pondered her situation; an hour ago she was sitting in a diner with Mac, having a pleasant conversation and more fun than she'd had in weeks, and now she just felt like the scared little girl she had been the day her friends had been killed.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Mac emerge from the elevator. When his eyes met Lindsay's she didn't need his words to tell her that the note had indeed been dropped off by Vivian, the grim look in his eyes said it better than words ever could.

"What am I going to do, Mac?" Her voice was quiet and shaky; she barely recognised it as her own.

Mac looked thoughtful for a moment, then he set his jaw and looked back at Lindsay, "You're going to stay with me."

He sounded almost forceful, but the look in his eyes was tender; possessive.

She smiled and nodded gently, having seemingly lost the capability of speech.

Mac returned the smile as he took her hand in his and gently led her towards the break room. Once in the room he sat on the couch, lightly pulling her down next to him.

Placing her hand in his lap and clasping it in both hands, Mac looked into her eyes, "I promise you, Lindsay, I won't let anything happen to you."

In the moment when she met Mac's eyes she felt safer than she had felt in her entire life. Overwhelmed by the moment, all Lindsay could manage was a whisper.

"Thank you."

* * *

­­Later that night, Lindsay entered Mac's apartment.

"Thank you again for letting me stay with you."

He smiled warmly at her, "You're very welcome."

Lindsay looked around, taking in every detail of her surroundings. Mac's apartment was neat and simplistic, just as she had expected it to be. He spent most of his time at work, so it stood to reason that his office was more of a home to him than his apartment was. The furniture in the apartment was crisp and clean, and nothing was out of place. The only unexpected object in the room was the Xbox 360 sitting to the left of the TV.

To her right stood an amused Mac Taylor, who was leaning against the wall that separated the entryway from the kitchen. He was watching her gaze around his living room, absorbing every detail.

His lips curled up slightly at the corners, "Would you like a tour?"

Lindsay smirked as she looked up at him, and then returned her gaze to the contents of the apartment, after a few moments she softly replied, "Actually, could you show me where I'm sleeping? Because it's been a long day and I just want to get some rest."

"Of course," He walked towards a small hallway off the living area, motioning for Lindsay to follow him, "It's the door on the right, and the one at the end is the bathroom"

Lindsay nodded, gazing absently down the hall.

"And my room is that door that was behind the couch;" he added, his eyes never leaving Lindsay, "In case you need anything."

When she didn't respond, Mac reached out and gently put his hand on her arm, she jumped at the contact, but relaxed when she realized it was Mac.

"Lindsay, it's okay. You're safe here; I'll be right across the hall and there's an officer across the street on the lookout for Vivian. She's not getting anywhere near you, I promise."

Lindsay sighed, "I know. I'll be alright," she cast him a weary yet reassuring smile, "I think I just need some sleep."

"Okay, just let me know if you need anything."

"I will," she pushed herself up on tiptoes and softly kissed his cheek, and as she pulled away she whispered, "Thank you." Before turning around and walking into the spare bedroom.

The room was small and the only furniture it contained was a bed, dresser, mirror and a bedside table. She walked over to the bed, sat down and scooted back so that her back rested against the wall. She tilted her head back against the brickwork and let the tears fall; the ones that she had been struggling to hold in all day.

Her brain felt fried; it had been such a long day that seemed as though it would never end. After Mac had invited Lindsay to stay with him they had met up with Hawkes and decided that it would be a conflict of interest if anyone from their shift were to investigate the case, and that it would be best to call in the night shift CSI's to take the case, but that didn't stop Mac checking up on their progress every hour or so.

Lindsay let out a small laugh which came out sounding more like a sob; Mac could be pretty stubborn when he wanted to be. She sniffed and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand, but more tears promptly took their place on her cheeks.

She and Mac had also been questioned about the note and the circumstances surrounding it; although she still knew very little about Vivian and her connection to Mac.

It felt odd to her to be on the other side of the interrogation table; it made her feel uneasy and trapped. And the night shift CSI's kept asking her about that line in the letter,

Stay away from Mac Taylor

They repeatedly asked her questions on the status of the relationship between her and Mac, and whether it was a romantic one. After they had asked her the same question 3 times, each worded differently, she struggled to keep her temper. She had questioned plenty of suspects this way before, she knew all the interrogation tricks inside and out, and she couldn't believe that they thought she was stupid enough to fall for them.

When they had finally let her go at 5pm, an entire hour after her shift was supposed to have ended, she joined Hawkes on a new suicide case, which they had solved in a little over 3 hours. The case was a straightforward one but it had still drained her, both mentally and physically. She didn't mind the tiredness, it had felt good to keep busy with something because it forced her to think of something other than Vivian, and the more tired she was, the more likely it would be that she could have a good night's sleep.

Lindsay sniffed again, but didn't bother to wipe away the tears. She stood up from her place on the bed and put on the sweats and strap top that she had found in her locker when she was getting ready to leave the crime lab. They were the closest thing to pajamas that she had on her and she made a mental note to ask Mac if they could go back to her apartment before work the next morning to get her some clothes, since they had both been too exhausted to make the trip tonight and all she had with her was the items that had been in her locker.

She folded her clothes neatly and placed them on the floor next to the bedside table before turning off the light and climbing underneath the covers, but it took another half an hour for her to fall asleep.

* * *

Lindsay awoke with a start, breathing heavily and looking frantically around the unfamiliar room. When she remembered that she was in Mac's apartment she calmed down, knowing that she was safe.

When her breathing had returned to normal, she untangled herself from the sheets and made her way over to the mirror. She stood in front of it and tied her hair up in a messy ponytail, letting a few strands of her curly brown hair to fall to the side of her face. She tucked them neatly behind her ears and made her way to the bathroom to have a shower.

After her shower she returned to her room, feeling refreshed. She looked at the clock, noting that she didn't have to be at work for another 2 hours so there was no need to get changed just yet. She made the bed and then returned to the mirror to apply the little make-up that she'd had in her locker. Satisfied with her appearance, she ventured out into the apartment to get herself a glass of water.

She leaned against the kitchen counter and sipped at her water while taking in the details of the apartment that she had missed the night before. It was then the she realized that Mac's bedroom door was ajar, so she snuck over to take a look inside, only to find the room empty. Puzzled, she poked her head around the wall, noting that the bathroom door was also open. Where was Mac?

She walked around the apartment, checking every room. Her panic flared when she failed to find him, he couldn't have just left her alone, he wouldn't do that to her. She tentatively called out his name, "Mac?" When there was no reply she called louder, "Mac?"

This time she heard a muffled, "Yeah?" that sounded as though it was coming from his bedroom. This confused Lindsay even more, she looked into the room again, the bed was made, and the door to what appeared to be a balcony was shut- "Balcony" she muttered under her breath, silently laughing at herself for getting in a panic over nothing.

Lindsay made her way over to the door and opened it. The balcony was small and contained 2 chairs, one on each side that sat facing each other. Her eyes fell on Mac who was sitting with his knee's pulled close to his chest in the chair furthest from the door, wearing navy pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt, a cup of coffee clasped in his hands. His gaze that had previously been fixed on the view of the Hudson River moved to Lindsay as she walked through the door and shut it behind her.

"Good morning," he greeted with a warm smile, "Did you sleep okay?"

"Yeah," she replied, mirroring his smile, "I managed to tire myself out enough yesterday to actually get a good night's sleep."

He chuckled, his eyes briefly flicking back towards the Hudson, before fixing his gaze on Lindsay once more, "I called the lab, they- um, they can prove that Vivian killed Dan Palmer, but they can't find her." He lowered his eyes to his coffee, "She took a large sum of money out of her bank account the day before the murder. They think she did it so that we couldn't trace her using her credit cards."

Lindsay sighed, staring at her now empty glass, "Smart woman." This only made her worry more, especially the fact that Mac seemed worried too.

They sat in silence for several minutes; both were gazing out towards the Hudson but not really seeing it. A beeping from within Mac's room startled them both from their thoughts. Mac stood up, drained the last of his coffee and slipped inside his room to turn off the beeping, which turned out to be his alarm clock. Lindsay then stood up and made her way back inside to the kitchen to wash out her glass.

When Mac emerged fully dressed from the bathroom 10 minutes later, Lindsay, who was sitting on the couch, looked up at him and asked if they could stop at her apartment on the way to work to pick her up some clean clothes.

He agreed, and when they reached her apartment, Lindsay changed into clean clothes and packed a duffel bag of clothes that would keep her going for a week.

As they were leaving the building, a boy who looked no older than 14 approached them, "Are you Mac Taylor?" he asked them.

Mac furrowed his brow, "Well that depends. Who wants to know?"

"She didn't tell me her name, but she was really tall and she had brown hair," the boy replied, "She gave me 100 bucks to give you this." He held out a folded piece of paper and when Mac reached out to take it the boy pulled his hand back, "The lady told me to give it to her." He gestured towards Lindsay then held the piece of paper out for her to take it.

Lindsay looked at Mac, who nodded, letting her know that it was okay to take it. She reached out and slid the paper out of the boy's hands; she opened it and paled as she read it.

I told you to stay away from him,  
This is your last warning, girl.  
If you don't do as I ask you will meet the same end as Dan Palmer.

Mac, who had been reading the note over Lindsay's shoulder, called out to the boy who had begun to walk away, "The woman you saw, where did she go?"

The boy just shrugged, "I ran up to the building and when I turned around she was gone."

Mac sighed, "Okay," he then pulled out his badge, "Would you mind coming down to the station? We need to ask you a few questions about the woman who gave you this." He motioned to the paper in Lindsay's hands.

The boy shrugged again, "Okay, but I'm gonna be late for school."

"Don't worry; we'll sort that out when we get there."

Vivian watched from her car that was parked at the far end of the street, she smiled; the moment that that woman was alone she would make her move. She didn't care how long she would have to wait or what lengths she had to go to, the woman who had taken Mac from her was going to die; one way or another.

* * *

**A/N's:  
Since I now have plenty of free time, I will be able to get a lot more writing done. So you can expect more chapters pretty soon.**


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